Food Park

July 01, 2015

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY (Leader of the Opposition) ( 14:21 :15 ): It is a shame we don't get any answers any more, Mr President. I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking the Minister for Automotive Transformation—and a whole bunch of other things—a question about the food park.

Leave granted.

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY: Obviously, as part of the budget announcement, the government announced that it had provided, I think, $2 million for the establishment of a food park, and I note it spent some $700,000—$0.7 million—in the last 12 months to commission a business case and supporting activities to establish that food park. We can now assume, I guess, that it is a $2.7 million, approaching $3 million, project.

Yesterday, in answer to a question from his colleague, the Hon. John Gazzola, the minister spoke about a number of things, but in particular about the food park in northern Adelaide. I will just quote from his answer:

This initiative will bring together a range of manufacturing, pa ckaging, distribution and trans port companies to come together in a single location. The food park will allow manufacturing businesses to access shared infrastructure. This will improve the productivity and competitiveness of our food manufacturing sector, leading to more jobs. The government will shortly assess land options, which will allow for more detailed planning for this project to be undertaken.

My question is: are any of the parcels of land that the government is considering owned by the Walker Corporation?

The Hon. K.J. MAHER (Minister for Manufacturing and Innovation, Minister for Automotive Transformation, Minister for Aboriginal Affairs and Reconciliation) ( 14:22 :43 ): I thank the honourable member for his question and his great ability to read Hansard, which I assume is correct. I do not have the exact dates, but I am happy to bring them back for the honourable member.

I think that six or seven weeks ago a request for information went out that was published in most papers, and more widely, for any property holders, developers or so forth to come to government to let them know if they had a parcel of land in northern Adelaide—I think from memory it was of at least 40 hectares—that may be appropriate for a food park to be established.

Off the top of my head, I think the date for the return of that request for information has passed, and I don't know what the results of those are yet. As this project moves forward, I will undertake to bring back to the council more information about it.

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY (Leader of the Opposition) ( 14:24 :13 ): What does the minister envisage the $2 million will be spent on that has been allocated in this year's budget?

The Hon. K.J. MAHER (Minister for Manufacturing and Innovation, Minister for Automotive Transformation, Minister for Aboriginal Affairs and Reconciliation) ( 14:24 :19 ): I thank the honourable member for his supplementary. To further develop the food park proposal.